initiation

Today I heard something that bothered me quite a bit. A high school in Charlottesville has a school sports team for girls volleyball. My cousin was on this team. Apparently to be a ‘part of the team’ they had to go through initiation. This involved rolling around in ketchup while people took pictures at the new team players and laughed at them. The same cousin wants to join a sorority for college.

I think if you want to be humiliated to be accepted in a social club when you’re in college, that’s your own business, however, when it becomes a ‘team thing’ in high school, that is getting a bit ridiculous. If the team is supported by a high school, then the coach should not allow this to be going on. Especially when the parents called the coach and told her that this was happening and yet it continues. I understand that a coach may not be able to stop what happens on the girls’ own time, but to condone it or look the other way is not only sending the wrong message for high schoolers, but it also allows this kind of humiliating behavior to exist at an age where acceptance is extremely important. The most important thing in the world is not acceptance and as we grow older we understand this, but to impressionable teenagers (and sometimes college kids or people in their early twenties) this is a struggle to understand.

What do you think about initiation? for it? against it? kids own decision? parents should be more involved? ….